1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal device that performs a specific process, an apparatus and method for controlling such a terminal device, and a method of controlling a specific process in such a terminal device.
2. Prior Art
Various terminal devices are available, which people may use. In terms of use, they can be classified into communications terminals and household terminals. The communications terminals include personal computer (PC) terminals, portable terminals, cellular telephones, telephone sets, and the like. The household terminals include television receivers, stereophonic sets, set-top boxes and the like. Terminal devices of the same type can be classified in accordance with the places where they are used. For example, personal computers may be classified into office-use ones and household-use ones.
Of the terminal devices people can use, some utterly differ from in function, while the others are very similar in function. Telephone sets that enable people to talk to each other, personal computers that exchange electronic mails and personal digital assistants (PDAs), for example, are similar in function because they help people to communicate with one another. Personal data, such as the setting parameters, address pads and telephone directories, are distributed to the terminal devices. This means that any person who owns a terminal device needs to set use conditions in the terminal device and write an address pad into the terminal device. Since no consolidated management of personal data can be achieved, the user needs to spend much time and labor to set parameters in his terminal device.